


You'll Wake Up One Day

by w3djyt



Category: Bleach
Genre: AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-09
Updated: 2013-01-22
Packaged: 2017-11-15 23:39:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/533040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/w3djyt/pseuds/w3djyt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Out of options, the captain of sixth division is on his way to the execution grounds to save his childhood friend. He wishes he was more surprised to find his stoic vice captain attempting to bar his way. [ AU: Captain!Renji, ViceCaptain!Byakuya and the iconic fight between the two of them as it would have happened if their positions were reversed. ]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Waking

 

  
  
[image by Roncheg](http://roncheg.deviantart.com/art/alternative-156783848)

“It’s time to put an end to the struggle between us.”

“Awfully cocky for someone who’s s’posedly just learned bankai.” A grin slowly crept across the redhead’s expression as his vice captain’s tightened in an attempt to hide the surprise and consternation his remark had caused.

Byakuya let slip a small frown, knowing it was impossible to keep the reaction from his captain. He _shouldn’t_  have been so shocked to hear the infernal man had already known, but it didn’t keep indignation from creeping up his spine anyway. “How long?” he simply returned.

“Long enough,” Renji declared, stepping forward with a broad sweep of his sword from its sheath. “Better make this good, Kuchiki - I’ve an execution ta stop.”

“You misunderstand…” Byakuya murmured, raising a hand to draw up the thousands of blades of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi summoned only moments before - poised and ready. “Your treasonous actions have no bearing on my presence here today…” A red eyebrow quirked up, though that sharp auburn gaze remained all too attentive to the drifting hold he maintained over the now pleasantly floating miasma of petal like glints of light. “It is merely that…” - his fingers flexed - “you have laid claim to that which never belonged to you.”

“Arrogant little shit, aren’t you-“

“Scatter Sen-“

“BANKAI!” 

The clash of reiatsu alone burst through the air with such terrifying ferocity that the ground trembled before pieces of the surrounding, shattered towers struck it. Byakuya flashed backwards on a single step, outdistancing the plume of dirt, smoke, and an all too familiar roar cascading out seconds before an intense beam of hot red energy blasted into the immediate guard of his zapakutou’s millions of blades. Instantly, the battlefield was visible once more and in the middle of it, the giant bone snake of his captain’s bankai uncoiling from its protective manifestation. 

A sloppy smirk tugged at Renji’s lips as he settled his weight back on his heels again. “Using an upgraded version of your shikai, Kuya?” he noted with far more amusement than was wholly necessary.

The sakura petals spun about Byakuya in the only open show of the agitation that followed the utterly too familiar address. “You say that as if I need go any further.”

“… You really don’t think much a me do you?” Renji chuckled even as the snake above him lurched forward with a hiss to crash headlong into the spiral of blades reflecting as fallen petals in defense of the nobleman. 

“How often do you bankai in battle, Abarai- _Taichou_?” Byakuya answered with an arch of his eyebrow. “How often have you raised that blade to me in your nauseant attempt to ‘improve’ my skills?” There was a certain satisfaction in seeing his captain’s eyes widen with the next words that the noble simply couldn’t keep from turning to smugness in his voice. “Your dependence on your subordinates will be your downfall.” Both hands rose in a simultaneous push forward to spiral down along the bone-snake’s vertebrae in a deliberate forward strike. 

Renji’s counter was, by then, too predictable and the noble was there to meet it - quickly from above as the redhead preferred - not with the thousands of petals that formed his protective barrier, but with an upraised hand and the simple phrase, “Hadou #63: Souren Soukatsui.”

The affect was instant, if not to the true power of the technique, due the skip in incantation. Still, the spell’s breadth was really what he was after, and the resounding collapse of giant pieces of bone crashing to the ground was all he needed to hear to continue his attack without the need to remove his eyes from where his explosion of kidou had blasted his captain. “Bakudou-“

“Hadou #31: Shakka-“

Byakuya reacted before the chant could finish with a swift alteration of his technique at the last moment. “- #81: Dankuu!” It was more than enough to block the novice cast. “Such low level techniques…” His gaze shifted aside as a burning glow enveloped the fallen pieces of bone surrounding him. “… are a disgrace to your position.” 

“… Says the man who’s so sure of victory… that he doesn’t know how to fight his way out of defeat.” The captain’s words reached him with an easy smirk just as the glow seemed to reach its peak. “Higa Zekkou!”

The swirl of petals rose to meet the attack without so much as a twitch from the nobleman. “Is it really such a good idea to take your time like this, Taichou?” Byakuya mused. “Didn’t you have… somewhere to be?”

A short bark of a laugh was his immediate answer, though much closer than he expected it to be, and he spun to catch sight of his captain as he appeared behind him. “What’ve I told ya about bein’ that arrogant in battle?”

“Nothing that has ever proved true,” the noble cooly retorted. 

“Then we’ll jus’ have ta fix that, won’t we?” Renji tsked, sliding into an easy shunpo as the millions of blades swept out for another attack - not to dodge, but to drive his way forward again.

“You have no technique I cannot block,” Byakuya flatly reminded him, increasing the speed of attack with short gestures of his hands when his captain became a bit more than merely difficult to follow and catching up easily with the adjustment. “… A thousand swords rise up from the ground… then those thousand swords scatter, and countless flying blades pierce through the enemy… no one knows the exact number of blades generated. No one can see the movement of those blades - let alone be capable of dodging them. Even you, Abarai-Taichou.”

“Good thing… I don’t need ta’ block ‘em.” The broadening grin was nearly audible. “Doesn’t matter if you never showed me all a it.” Renji continued, reappearing for another attack easily met by Senbonzakura’s countless blades, but looking no more frustrated by it than he would be in a sparring match - albeit once in which he’d already been sliced up enough that it was growing difficult to discern the spill of his own blood from the fall of equally red hair as it fell from his hair tie. “Any technique you use… Any skill you favor… There is always…”  The speed of a shunpo master left an after image in each location he slowed enough to be seen in, but inside the swirl of blades Byakuya felt no need to even guess at which was his captain. He knew, eventually, the reckless man would come to him instead. 

“… a weak point.”

Byakuya was just barely fast enough to dodge to the side on pure instinct when his captain appeared at his side - well  _within_  the buffer between Senbonzakura’s blades and himself. 

“Hikoutsu Taihou!” 

The blast came from his right - closer than he’d expected. More quickly than he’d anticipated any sort of recovery from his previous kidou attack. Except. His eyes widened in sudden realization. 

“… Did you just notice?” Renji chuckled as the millions of blades rose once more to block the attack - and had to adjust to deflect aside what it could not merely guard against, taking out half the field and part of the largest structure behind them. “Hadou 4: Byakurai.” Byakuya’s hand grabbing his wrist and jerking him forward was the only thing that kept the noble’s right lung intact. “Now that,” Renji murmured, “was the first worthwhile move you made.”

“You let your bankai fall apart so I wouldn’t notice where you positioned the head,” Byakuya calmly observed, raising his left hand as if reaching for an invisible blade. “Very well. I will grant you a death at my hands directly. My sword’s true form…” As he spoke the petals swarmed up around and above, coalescing into a dome of circling swords waiting to be drawn. “Senbonzakura Kageyoshi  _Senkei_.” 

“Che- yer just upset I figured out your little safe zone,” Renji pointed out with a twist of his wrist at the same moment one of the floating swords flew into Byakuya’s hand. “Haven’ I told ya before?” Just as his lieutenant swung the newly acquired blade down, Renji flash stepped straight forward, snatching both wrists and yanking hard to augment a brutal headbutt followed by a knee straight to his vice captain’s gut with such raw strength that it instantly winded him. “Bakudou #61: Rikujoukourou,” he cast while stepping back, the six brilliant lances of light slamming into the noble before he could completely collapse into the ground. “… Yer way too defensive when ya fight.”

Renji turned aside then, leaning over to pick up his zanpakutou, the blade reforming as he dismissed the remnants of the broken apart bankai littering the ground around them. “If you don’t go for the kill… your opponent will,” he explained, casting a glance back at his lieutenant and resting the back of his sword against his shoulder with the gesture. “As for me, well, I don’t really have the time ta spare. ‘s too bad, too… yer a really good fight,” he complimented with a smile. “‘s about time you tried.”

Byakuya twisted slightly, struggling against the surprisingly strong kidou that held him firmly at his captain’s mercy before settling enough to merely glare while trying to catch his breath. All around them Senbonzakura’s swords shattered into petals once more, this time falling harmlessly to the ground. How?! His mind was swimming, he could barely breathe, and he was fairly sure his captain had crushed his diaphragm if not a few of his ribs… but it should have been no where near the damage needed for his bankai to vanish. 

“… Still don’t get it, do you?” Renji concluded on a sigh. “Why ‘m always usin’ my bankai…” He turned back then, fully facing his lieutenant as he released the binding with a short flick of his wrist. Byakuya collapsed into a heap on the ground, struggling to his elbows and resting there. “Practice only gets you so far, Kuya. You’re good. One of the best matches I’ve had - can’t wait to see what you can do when your heart’s in it and you’ve got some real experience under your belt.” He swung his sword down from his shoulder and sheathed it again as an excuse to ignore the sudden, shocked expression that slapped itself so plainly across his subordinate’s face. “When this is over with… let’s have a real match.”

Abarai spun on his heel; the torn sections of a previously pristine haori and the free fall of brilliantly red hair tauntingly august in the seconds before he vanished completely from sight. 


	2. But It'll Be Too Late

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can a role reversal tempt fate? When the Blood War begins, and a mutual respect tested by fear, what end follows?
> 
> Chapter Dedication to Lucy Monster - always spurring my muse. I know you were looking for another chapter, well, surprise! :D It's not much, but I hope you enjoy it :3

  


[Image](http://roncheg.deviantart.com/gallery/257798#/d2rsbb8) by Roncheg

 

A single step took Renji quickly between his vice captain and the intruder. 

"Step back." It was a simple command, spoken straight forward - to the standing enemy or to the noble now behind him. Both possible recipients merely shifted their gazes briefly to the newly arrived captain rather than bothering to comply. Renji's expression shifted from grim to something better resembling sardonically amused and instead turned his attention more directly to his stubborn subordinate. "That was a nice trick," he commented of the large hole in the ground where their larger opponent had previously been.

As usual, Byakuya's reaction was little more than an irritated twitch of his lips downward into a firmer frown. Probably to do with the wording; the captain could practically read 'strategic use of a zanpakutou is not a mere _trick_ ' in the slate grey gaze still resting mostly on their opponent. Well good, then; at least he knew well enough not to underestimate the people standing before them now. Instead, his statement was simply, "This is my opponent, Abarai-Taichou."

"Not anymore."

 That, it seemed, was enough to cause a widening of the eyes at least. Eyes that were quickly thereafter narrowed. "Now is not the time to-"

" _Step back, Fukutaichou_ ," Renji curtly ordered once more, turning back around and unsheathing his sword in the process. Then, before his insubordinate lieutenant could dig himself a deeper hole, added, "Watch carefully."

 Byakuya stared. "You can't-" The familiar downbeat of energy preluding the final release of his captain's sword cut him off as it saturated the area in a split second.

 "Ban-"

 " _Taichou_ -!"

 "-kai!"

 The whirl of manifested reiatsu that accompanied a bankai release was a chaotic blur of energy at the best of time. Seeing, less than a second into the outpouring of power, their opponent raise some sort of badge-like item from just inside his coat rushed adrenaline so quickly through the nobleman that it was all he could do just to stay where he was: stand still and watch as he'd been ordered. Observe as the heated, churning, violent energies of Hihiou Zabimaru barely had time to present the image of its familiar, giant form rearing back with a roar before some sort of strange vortex sucked all of the massive reiatsu forward in a rush of power that whipped the air into a zephyr, tugging his clothes and hair forward with the motion. In front of him, he watched his captain's stunned expression give way to what was undoubtedly a string of curses silenced by the gust of wind. A flick of his wrist, and, somehow in the midst of all the roaring, half disappearing manifestation, his sword shifted to shikai.

 It had no affect.

 Hihiou Zabimaru had all but vanished from sight: dissolved into inky darkness that spun around in front of their opponent and, ultimately, sank down into that horrid badge. The resounding silence in the sudden absence of whipping wind and roaring power blanketed them so completely he nearly forgot to draw breath until the very moment it was broken by the sixth division captain's low statement.

 "… That wasn't… a seal."

 Finally, then, an almost hesitant step forward.  Almost. The head of Soul Society's foremost noble family did _not_ hesitate before an enemy. Ever. Senbonzakura's hilt nearly bit into the palm of his hand from the strength by which his grip had unconsciously increased. "… Abarai-"

 "You _took him_." An angry flare of reiatsu snapped up around the redhead, harsh and rolling and violent as a stormy sea. 

 Byakuya just barely kept from stepping back once more. 'Took him'? What exactly-? And then Matsumoto's warning rung out over Seireitei as clear as if she were standing beside him. _Stolen_. The reports hadn't had all of the information, then. They didn't merely seal bankai, somehow, they… took them? Thoughtlessly, he moved forward again, loosening the firm hold on his own reiatsu to combat the infuriated rake of his captain's as he moved quickly to the man's side. "As I said," he lowly began, casting his gaze askance to catch the redhead's expression, "this is my battle."

 The sound of the technology department's relay device sliding into the ground behind them was nearly lost in the grumble and roll of their competing reiatsu.

 "… That worried 'bout me, Kuya?" Renji answered with a slight turn of his head and a smirk just before the device activated to the sound of a shinigami announcer. The declaration of Ichigo's imminent arrival crackled and blared, all but lost on the two shinigami. 

 Byakuya's expression shifted to positively _lethal_ in a split second and so very clear was his intent to bypass his captain entirely for the sake of attempting to land a real blow on their opponent that it was no surprise to find the Quincy launching one instead. The fact that he was grabbed and _thrown_ out of the way of it, however, was something both startling and infuriating at once. Unfortunately, it seemed that even now, his captain remained a step ahead of him; the extended end of Zabimaru's shikai form slamming into the ground in front of him before he could think to take another step forward. 

 Renji glared back over his shoulder, torn haori and the shuddering heave of his shoulders the only indication that he'd taken any damage from the thorn like projectiles embedded into the walls and ground behind them. "Stay _back!_ " The minute shake of his grip on the hilt of his sword was almost unnoticeable, even to the nobleman's gaze, but the quiver in his captain's voice was not. "If you disobey another order, I will _permanently_ remove you from the field!" the redhead barked more convincingly this time, jerking his hand back to recall his sword and turn to face the Quincy attacking them. Byakuya remained mute as he observed the bow in the captain's normally straight lines, the almost _uncertain_ shift of his grip as he set a second hand towards the base of his hilt…

 "Have you noticed?" The sudden inquiry from their otherwise quiet attacker drew both gazes sharply back to the masked man. "You thought 'they may be poisoned,' correct?" The muffled tones were accented by the shift of his remaining thorns around him as he extended a bony hand, curled up as if the flexing grip controlled their movement. "You would be wrong."

 Renji drew a shaky breath, his hands clenching fiercely to the hilt of his sword as he sunk deeper into a fighting stance: instinctively defensive. 

 "This is something you lost long, long ago." 

 The trembling increased. 

 "Trace your memories."

 As if on command, Renji's mind drifted immediately to the streets of Inuzuri. Of street fights and desperate grapples for food. Of the Academy's advanced exercises that nearly got him killed in the chaos of broken patrols. Of the relief that came with getting back to Seireitei alive after a shift in the Living World and catching a glimpse of Rukia doing the same. 

 "You became a captain, got stronger…"

 The thrill of his first battle with a bankai, no matter how restricted. How Zabimaru roared with such energy that he felt it vibrate into the very depths of his being.  A roar now muted and out of reach.  Away from him; simmering, all too familiar reiatsu, at the edges of the Quincy as he spoke, each word driving into his skull and spawning a memory that made it harder and harder to focus…

 "You haven't felt this in a long time, have you?" 

 If his mouth could be seen, Byakuya was sure Äs Nödt held some sort of demented smirk as he continued, eyes seeming to roll upward in some sort of disgusting rise of ecstasy from every word. "The name of that feeling - the most important emotion in any human's life is-"

 "Fear." 

 The nobleman felt himself blink in surprise at his captain's interjection. Äs looked similarly startled into a somewhat normal expression that turned appraising as he watched the man between them. "… I expected no less of you, Captain.  You are truly resilient.  Any normal shinigami, upon receiving an attack from my 'arrows', would scream out and go insane from all the fear.  They would be unable to bear it; their hearts would burn up and explode, and they would suffocate.  Those hit by my arrows… _fear everything_."

 Then the shake wasn't from the strain of battle… wounds suffered or anything of the sort. It was… it was the tremble that made it past Renji's control. Byakuya's eyes widened sharply. How long had his captain known? He'd sensed the man nearby when he'd stepped in before another of their unseated officers could be lost to the foul creature before them… Had Senbonzakura's deflections sent thorns in his direction? Or had Renji figured it out on his own? Or was it simply the redhead's instincts to get him out of the way of an attack they knew nothing about the affects of? He continued to watch - stare really - because he'd been ordered, or because he couldn't move beneath the weight of realization. 

 With each passing second, Äs Nödt wove the net tighter. "If I step towards the enemy right now, something critical may happen." Renji shifted his sword in front of him: two hands and a solid grip. "If I put my hand on my blade… If I unsheathe it… If I swing it up…" The captain drew a slow, shuddering breath. "If I swing it down…" Carefully unbowed his stance, straightening in spite of the clear struggle the small action took. "The enemy's speaking to me. He may cast some horrifying spell with the next word. If he moves his fingers. If he switches his gaze.If he breathes in. If he breathes out… 

 "They doubt everything… and lose control of their thoughts."

 Äs Nödt's eyes refocused from the upward roll his ecstatic rambling had driven them to. 

 "But you are doing a great job of resisting that." 

 Renji's weight shifting was the only warning before he launched himself forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrestled with the idea of completing this fight all at once, but ultimately decided to be wicked with a cliff hanger. So far this series has engendered little beyond contemplations of fights and was developed in great part due to where the manga was at the time of its original writing. (These chapters). As such, now that we've moved on and temperaments have changed, so too have my goals for this story.
> 
> Look for the next chapter to weave in more of the in-between times and bring the conclusion to this match along with other, difficult battles in their lives.

**Author's Note:**

> After seeing a wonderfully drawn AU image of Abarai-Taichou and Byakuya-Fukutaichou I just had to write something for it... So I started with the most well known scene between the two of them. /o/ I worked out some of the background for this AU in order for it to make some sense timeline-wise...
> 
> ..... Renji and Rukia are a little older and get to Seireitei earlier.  
> ..... Rukia was adopted into the Kuchiki house when Hisana was still alive.  
> ..... Renji’s drive to prove himself during all the craziness that happens back then is a direct result of feeling kicked out of Rukia’s life (still)  
> ..... He gets bankai much earlier and gains all the battle experience he normally gets in series much earlier as well.  
> ..... Thus, he takes the VC position in Sixth mainly because it’s got such strong connections with the Kuchiki family.  
> ..... He does this when Ginrei was the captain, and in this continuity Ginrei is killed and Renji takes over, which Byakuya is INCREDIBLY irked by.  
> ..... Byakuya develops bankai in a sort of knee jerk reaction to all of this and does so more or less in secret.  
> ..... Renji is really invested in his subordinates: takes the time to train them, etc… and thus has a pretty good idea of what’s going on with Byakuya.  
> ..... Although certainly more mature by this point in the timeframe, Renji still loves a good fight and Byakuya really doesn’t get that.  
> ..... Renji has also realized by then that Byakuya really doesn’t want to see his sister killed after all that crap happens with Ichigo, mainly because she’s the only close family he has left, thus the comment Renji makes at the end.  
> ..... The first two fights Renji has with Ichigo in series are replaced first with Byakuya who didn’t want to bother releasing his sword in the living world, thus Renji stepping in when they retrieve Rukia and then later by another member of the sixth division that looks up to Byakuya and tries to intervene on his behalf to make Ichigo stay out of noble busines.  
> ..... Nevertheless, Renji still fully respects Ichigo’s actions, but exhausts all his avenues of fixing this before openly siding with him.  
> ..... Renji fully expects someone to find Byakuya after this and never intended to kill him.  
> ..... Byakuya still fights Ichigo after this - all dialogue intact, which means his comment about Ichigo being the second person ever to see Senkei is a literal reference to his match with Renji beforehand and kind of echoes Renji’s commentary here about how Byakuya needs more battle experience more than anything.


End file.
